Biden admin indicts Chinese firms tied to fentanyl distribution

Treasury also imposes sanctions on firms and their employees related to drug trafficking.

Merrick Garland said on Tuesday the global fentanyl supply chain often starts with chemical companies in China. Picture: AFP

U.S. officials on Tuesday announced a raft of indictments and sanctions against China-based companies and their employees related to the trafficking of chemicals used to manufacture large quantities of illicit fentanyl, the most deadly illegal drug the U.S. has ever experienced.

The legal moves are part of a Biden administration push to stop the flow of the powerful painkiller into the U.S., as the opioid scourge unleashes a wave of deaths across the country. Chinese companies produce chemicals, known as precursors, that are shipped to Mexican cartels, which use them to produce fentanyl and smuggle it into the U.S. The effort also focused on networks that traffic xylazine, a veterinary-grade sedative often mixed with fentanyl that can leave users severely disfigured.

“This global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China,” Attorney-General Merrick Garland said, joining officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security and Treasury departments in announcing the actions.

All stages of this supply line have proven very difficult to interrupt. The U.S. likely saw more than 111,000 drug overdose deaths in the 12 months running through April this year, according to the modest recent estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Synthetic opioids — a category dominated by fentanyl — were involved in roughly 70% of those deaths.

The indictments brought in Florida charge eight companies in China and 12 of their employees with various crimes related to the manufacturing and distributing the precursor chemicals for illicit drugs as well as money laundering.

As part of the administration’s co-ordinated action, the U.S. Treasury Department also levied sanctions on 28 individuals and entities it said were part of the drug trafficking network. Among those targeted include Du Changgen, whom officials said leads the network, overseeing sales and distribution to dozens of traffickers in the U.S., cartels and others.

All of the people and companies charged by the Justice Department are believed to be in China, and none have been arrested.

“It is our intention to bring every one of these defendants to justice in the United States,” Garland said. But with no extradition treaty with China, the chances are slim they will ever be brought to the U.S. to face prosecution.

Some of the defendants boasted about their ability to skirt U.S. Customs to secret the chemicals directly into the U.S. using tactics that included employing fake return addresses and disguising the product in mislabeled packaging such as dog food bags, officials said.

Others included a pharmaceutical company in China that exported vast amounts of chemicals to the U.S. and Mexico, including a drug trafficker affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel who prosecutors said went on to make fentanyl in Mexico later sold in the U.S.

The indictments build on similar prosecutions announced in June and come as a delegation of U.S. officials, including Garland, are travelling to Mexico this week to discuss the fight against fentanyl. Republicans have said the Biden administration is not doing enough to stop the problem.

Hitting international drug traffickers with financial sanctions severs their access to U.S. markets, freezes their assets and disrupts their ability to conduct business more broadly around the globe. In addition to Tuesday’s actions, the Treasury will expand its targeting to include friends, family members, and associates, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said.

“If you benefit from the proceeds of this illicit activity, we are going to come after your assets,” he said.

Ian Talley and Jon Kamp contributed to this article

The Wall Street Journal